Liberal Leadership: Chianello on the candidates’ speeches, as they happened

Joanne Chianello, The Ottawa Citizen01.25.2013

Ontario Liberal Party leadership candidate Gerard Kennedy talks on his phone at the leadership convention in Toronto on Friday, January 25, 2013.Frank Gunn
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

Charles Sousa speaks to supporters at the Ontario Liberal Leadership convention in Toronto on Friday, January 25, 2013.Frank Gunn
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

Ontario Liberal Party leadership candidate Kathleen Wynne hugs a delegate as she registers to vote at the leadership convention in Toronto on Friday, January 25, 2013.Frank Gunn
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

Leadership contender Harinder Takhar may not have a chance to win the leadership, but he’s become better known and columnist Joanne Chianello is confident people will be hearing more about him in the future.Nathan Denette
/ THE CANADIAN PRESS

TORONTO — If it’s hard to get wide swaths of the public engaged on issues and policies during elections, it’s near impossible during a leadership convention.

For one thing, all the candidates are from the same party, so there are usually only minor variations in their platforms, left or right.

That is even more so the case in this weekend’s Liberal leadership race.

With such a short campaign period, resulting from Dalton McGuinty’s proroguing of the provincial legislature, no one has had time to flesh out anything like an election-type campaign platform. They all promise to eliminate the deficit by fiscal 2018 at the latest, and in one way or another address jobs, northern and rural renewal and transportation issues.

So while each candidates is to give a 30-minute presentation to a packed Maple Leaf Gardens Saturday morning, it will necessarily be leadership style and rousing rhetoric that delegates look for, more than particular policy promises.

Here’s a quick snapshot of how they did.

FIRST SPEAKER: HARINDER TAKHAR

As one Ottawa Liberal who’s been unsuccessful at the polls a couple of times told me at the Wynne reception Thursday night, one “shouldn’t underestimate the ability of candidates for self-delusion.”

True, but only to a point.

How can anyone believe that Harinder Takhar entered this race to win? He announced his candidacy at the 11th hour in an already very short leadership race, ran delegates in only half of Ontario’s 107 ridings and plans to spend just $100,000 (of the $500,000 campaign maximum).

Many believe he’s running to raise his stature in the party — he had a setback a few years ago when he was found to contravene ethics guidelines by not keeping an arms-length relationship with his family business — and he’s definitely being courted by the front-runners in the race.

But Takhar, who promises to balance the budget a year earlier than other candidates and wants to introduce savings bonds to fund public transit, suffers from a less-than-sparkling public persona and virtually no name recognition.

His outing Saturday morning addressed that directly.

Indeed, he began his speech with, “For those of you who don’t know me,” and admitted that there were many in the room “who have never heard my name before this race.”

The video that opens each candidate’s presentation showed Takhar with his family, with his niece talking about how her uncle was an inspiration for them all — “If we need a role-model, we have one in our own family. He’s it.” — and Takhar himself spoke emotionally about is own mother in the context of building more long-term care facilities.

Unfortunately, Takhar lived up to his reputation of being an underwhelming speaker, but he did succeed in making himself more sympathetic.

His personal narrative — immigrant makes good in Canada — is great, but it’s tinged with sadness. In particular, Takhar, a Sikh, spoke about how he used to wear a turban when he first arrived in Canada and kept being turned down for jobs.

“Someone told me, cut your hair and change yourself,” he told the crowd. He asked himself: “Do I change a part of me ... or do I change my appearance to assimilate into this society?”

He cut his hair, reapplied for the same job, interviewed by the same person and got the job.

“But I ended up losing a part of myself forever, which I regret every day of my life,” said an emotional Takhar.

It was the most effective part of his speech. Takhar may not have a chance of winning this thing, but he’s succeeded in making his name better-known in the party. We’ll be hearing it again.

SECOND SPEAKER: GERARD KENNEDY

When I was interviewing Kennedy in Fran’s diner on College Street in Toronto a few weeks ago, an older gentleman at the next table leaned over and wish him luck — in French. The Montreal man recognized Kennedy from his time in federal government.

Name recognition is one of Kennedy’s biggest assets. But sitting a distant third before the first-ballot results are released — and not very far ahead of Takhar — the left-leaning candidate has to persuade others to join his team.

He began his speech asking, “Why am I here?” A lot of people are asking the same question, after Kennedy lost the provincial leadership in 1996, the federal leadership in 2006 and his own seat in the House of Commons in 2011.

Kennedy tried to present himself as a loyal Liberal, saying that Dalton McGuinty “will one day be judged as one of the great premiers of our province”.

But his main argument for delegate votes was that he’s not been in the Liberal government for years and is distanced from the provincial party’s latest problems and scandals.

“Renewal has to be deep, it has to be real,” he said.

And he promised to “rebalance the power between the leader, caucus and members,” vowing that all party members would be “involved in a month-to-month basis on building a better Ontario,” which didn’t sound make him like someone who believes the premier was doing an ideal job.

But while Kennedy is a skillful and confident speaker — and his French is arguably the best of all the candidates — he didn’t succeed in giving a compelling argument for why he’s the best candidate to lead the ailing Liberals.

Kennedy warned delegates that “if an election was called today, the conservatives would win, the NDP would edge us out.”

The problem is that not enough Liberals in the room believe Kennedy is the one to lead them to victory in the next election. He alluded to it himself, calling on them to “Fight the urge to be safe, reject the status quo.”

When the candidate himself knows that voting for him requires a leap of faith, there’s little chance enough delegates will jump.

THIRD SPEAKER: KATHLEEN WYNNE

Can Kathleen Wynne? That’s the question that plagues the second-place candidate, that she isn’t tough enough to take on the PC’s Tim Hudak and, to a lesser extent, the NDP’s Andrea Horwath.

That’s why her video started with her talking about how she beat then-PC leader John Tory in her own riding in the 2007 election.

But while Wynne put on a dynamic display on-stage — pointing at folks in the crowd, getting her delegates riled up — she stuck to her message that among all the candidates it is she who can best build bridges.

About her trouncing of John Tory? “I beat him, but we’re friends.” That’s how she rolls, she said.

“Being tough doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with being mean,” she said in her video, to huge cheers. In case anyone thought she was taking a shot at her rival Sandra Pupatello, Wynne went on to say that former PC premier Mike Harris equated tough with mean, “stripping away the humanity from government services,” which is what led her into provincial politics in 2003.

She continued with that tough-but-fair theme, saying that “fiscal responsibilty is the framework in which we deliver that social justice” and that the Liberals must be “steely” in their “fiscal resolve.”

She addressed the other party leaders directly: “Tim, Andrea, I’m sure you’re watching. Tim, let’s talk about fiscal responsibly, You care about that. Well, so do I.

“Andrea, you care about a fair society. Well, so do I.”

But she then went on to say that if her opponents triggered an election, she’d “fight them for every seat, every poll, in every riding.”

And Wynne addressed the big elephant in the room: Is Ontario ready for a gay premier.

In 2003, she was told the people of north Toronto weren’t ready for a gay MPP: “Well, apparently they were,” she said to a huge roar.

Charming, energized, direct — Wynne’s speech was a winner, putting to rest any lingering doubts she isn’t a forceful enough personality to lead the party. And it may make the difference in the second and third ballots, when delegates begin deciding to whom they’ll cross the floor.

FOURTH SPEAKER: CHARLES SOUSA

Another little-known candidate, Charles Sousa has only been in the legislature since 2007 and came in a disappointing fifth in the delegate selection. And while he likely didn’t enter the race to lose, there are other reasons to run, like positioning himself for a senior cabinet portfolio — after a long career in banking, it’s no secret Sousa would like to be someone’s finance minister.

But whose? With his signs sporting a big “JOBS” banner on them, Sousa’s platform meshes most with Pupatello, who’s also running as the “Jobs Premier.” And some of the folks cheering on the convention floor are wearing Pupatello shirts under their Sousa T’s. Signs of a deal? Who knows.

Sousa’s formal speeches are often delivered with an odd intonation, and that was the case this morning as well. He’s best when he’s talking off the cuff and in small groups — which is nice, but not what’s needed in a political leader.

And he can be charming when he’s talking about his father, who came from post-war Portugal, built a business in Toronto’s Kensington Market and opened his home to many who needed help.

“In Ontario, there’s room for everyone,” Sousa is fond of quoting his dad as saying. He echoed those sentiments later in his speech.

Mostly though, Sousa underwhelmed in his presentation — his own folks weren’t even sure when they should be cheering.

But so what? Sousa’s main role Saturday is as queen-maker. With Takhar apparently leaning to supporting Pupatello, whomever Sousa backs is likely to be the next Liberal leader and premier. And that’s a pretty good place to be, even if you’re fifth in the current standings. So we likely haven’t heard the last of Sousa yet — look for him again during the next Ontario budget.

FIFTH SPEAKER: SANDRA PUPATELLO

Going in as the front runner, Sandra Pupatello is stressing a few things: she’s focused on job creation, she’s electable and she’s from Windsor — an important distinction, as being from Toronto may be a liability outside the GTA.

Saturday’s video and speech underscored those themes.

“Those of us who fought the fight and who made the transition from opposition to government, we know how opposition thinks,” Pupatello said. Her second-place rival Wynne only ever served in government.

But Pupatello also tried to paint herself as someone who can work with everyone.

“My leadership campaign received support from both labour and business — that’s important to me,” she said.

But while she’d reach out to Hudak and Horwath to avoid an election, if one were in the offing, “We’ll be ready: I am the candidate who can win that election!”

So nothing too surprising from Pupatello.

It was a competently delivered speech, but it lacked the passion of Wynne’s. It was less energetic, and significantly less fun: consider that of the spontaneous cheers from her supporters, the loudest were “boos” in response to Pupatello’s criticisms of Hudak and Horwath.

The key question now is, will it matter? On the second and third and maybe fourth rounds of voting, did she convince enough delegates to choose her instead of Wynne? This speech may loom as more important if Pupatello and Wynne are less than 100 votes apart after the first ballot. A tense afternoon lies ahead for these two candidates.

SIXTH SPEAKER: ERIC HOSKINS

The saddest thing about this round of speeches is that one of the candidates has already lost. The first-ballot results won’t be announced until after the presentations, when the last-place candidate drops off. That’s likely to be Eric Hoskins.

Since that he knew that going into the day, the medical doctor and humanitarian’s speech could have gone either of two ways: great, since he had nothing to lose, or flat, from disappointment at how’s he done in the race.

Happily, it was the former, though it didn’t start out promisingly.

Two young Liberals introduced him — a nice symbol of Hoskins’ support, but not particularly effective in a big hockey arena.

Next was the video introducing him, an earnest highlight reel of his impressive credentials.

But his speech was pretty effective, considering what he’s up against and that he began this race with a somewhat wooden speaking style.

He began with a self-deprecating joke about a photo shown in his video of him in at age seven. As the youngest of a huge brood, “ “there are very few pictures of me.” It immediately changed the tone from the video.

Hoskins also addressed his standing in the race. “I harbour no illusions about my own delegate math,” he said.

Like some of the other newcomers, Hoskins underscored how he is “untethered from the machinery of politics.”

While he did talk a little about what he would bring to the leadership, he used his time on the stage to be a booster for the party. At one point, distinguishing themselves from so-called “capital-L Liberals,” he called out to the crowd: “Who else is an all-caps Liberal?” Hoskins then called out each of the other candidates’ teams asking, if they’re all-caps Liberals too. Later in the speech, when he returned to the catchphrase, the crowd shouted it with him.

It was a unifying moment.

And he says he’s staying in government, “whatever the odds.”

As for who he’ll support, the conventional wisdom is he’ll go to Wynne, although some in the Hoskins camp are annoyed at her team for campaigning so hard in Hoskins’ own Toronto riding of St. Paul’s. (Hoskins won just six delegates there, while Wynne took five.)

Still, his rhetoric sounds more like Wynne’s than Pupatello’s. But he indicated he certainly won’t be going to Kennedy, as some have suggested, when he referred to Ontario’s next premier, “whoever she may be.”

Comments

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.

Share

Liberal Leadership: Chianello on the candidates’ speeches, as they happened